White House says pilots who flew Iran mission will join Trump for July 4 event

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday confirmed that the United States pilots that led the bombing mission on Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this month will join President Donald Trump for the Fourth of July.

The United States eliminated three nuclear facilities in Iran earlier this month, in order to prevent the country from creating nuclear bombs. Iran retaliated last week by attacking a U.S. base in Qatar, but neither side has attacked each other since.

Trump first teased the meeting on Sunday, where he told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that the seven bombers will be joining him at the White House. But he did not reveal that the meeting would take place on the Fourth of July.

Leavitt has since confirmed that the pilots, along with additional personnel from Whiteman Air Force Base where the bombers are based in Missouri, will attend the event, CBS News reported.

"President Trump looks forward to celebrating our nation's founding on Friday in the nation's capital," Leavitt said in a statement. "To join in the celebration, the might of America's Air Force will conduct a flyover featuring our state-of-the-art F-22s, B-2s, and F-35s - the same air capabilities used for the decisive and successful strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities."

The invitation comes after the Trump administration slammed media coverage of the bombings. Trump heavily criticized the New York Times and CNN for covering a preliminary report that claimed the bombing had only set Iran back in its nuclear program by a few months, leaving out the fact that the report claimed low confidence in its findings. The president and his administration have repeatedly stated that the operation succeeded in effectively eliminating Iran's nuclear capabilities.

The president has even called for the CNN reporter who covered the bombing to be fired from the network, because her "slant was so obviously negative."

"She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network," he said in a post on Truth Social last week.

Trump also claimed the reporter's coverage was so bad it allegedly hurt the pilots who conducted the mission.

"After 36 hours of dangerously flying through Enemy Territory, they landed, they knew the Success was LEGENDARY, and then, two days later, they started reading Fake News by CNN and The Failing New York Times. They felt terribly," he posted.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.